The Boy walked into the laundry room earlier this evening while I was moving clothes from the washer to the dryer. The following conversation ensued:

Him: "Hey, why do you look like that?"

Me: "Look like what?"

Him: "I dunno...dressed up or something."

Me: "You mean in a t-shirt, shorts and sandals?"

Him: "Yeah, I guess..."

It got me to thinking....he's been off for the past four days and Tommy's been gone for most of that. I guess the only things he's seen me in have been swim suits, PJ's, sweats and slippers.

You know you've gotten too relaxed in your dress when your son considers a t-shirt and shorts "dressed up". I really oughta get out more....or at least get dressed more often.

This week, The Boy has to take part in a health unit for his Pre-AP Science class. The State of Texas has a big push on for nutritional awareness among elementary and middle school kids, trying to promote healthy eating habits that will hopefully last into their high school years.

Anyway, for the unit he has to give all his stats (height, weight, waist size, head circumference, etc.). Now, I'm not sure about you...but I was a chunky kid and if they'd asked me to do all that in 6th grade I think it would have REALLY stressed me out. I mean, think about the danger of the "mean girls" finding out my stats and teasing me? Crushing. Luckily, The Boy is thin and fit so I don't think he'll have a problem with it.

Another part of the project is The Boy has to write down each and every single thing he eats...for a week. I'm really not sure what they're going to do with the information. I guess it could be used as part of a study where they look at what the gifted kids are eating (or not eating) that makes them so smart. The kids in the regular science class aren't doing the project...

Anyway. So....how would you react if you knew that each and every thing your kid eats for a week is being set down on paper for all the teachers at school to see? I don't know what you'd do, but I'm pulling out all the big guns this week, baby. It's oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, at least an apple if nothing else nutritions at lunch, beef jerky for snacks, and here's the evening menu:

Monday: Parmesan chicken with tomato/basil salad and roasted potatoes and peppers
Tuesday: Beef kabobs with squash mushrooms, onions, bell peppers; couse couse on the side
Wednesday: Roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and asparagus; crescent rolls
Thursday: Spinach and cheese tortellini with small side salad and garlic bread
Friday: Peppercorn pork loin with saffron rice and spring salad
Saturday: Turkey enchiladas with Spanish rice
Sunday: Braised halibut steaks with sundried tomatoes and onions; brown rice on the side

I hope they approve....thank God the project ends on Sunday. I don't know how long I can keep this up....

UPDATE: Oh....My...GOD!!!!! The Boy just called down the stairs after reading this post and said, "Mom, we have to do it for a month, not a week!"

Damn....now I have to plan miracle menus for three more weeks....wonderful.

Me: "Why don't you ever wear the black pants anymore?"

The Boy: "Oh I dunno. Because they don't have a zipper?"

Me: "Huh? They don't have a zipper?"

The Boy: "Yeah...see?"

I checked. Sure enough...they don't have a zipper.

Me (to myself): "Who does that? Who makes pants for middle schoolers that don't have zippers? Don't they realize the whole not wanting to pull your whole pants front down at the urinal issue? Jeez....."

Me: "Well that's it. We're going through your closet and organizing it tomorrow."

The Boy: "Mom, why do we have to do that? My closet works for me. How would you feel if I went into your closet and totally went roughshod through it and messed everything up to look like mine?"

Me: "........"

The Boy: "Well?"

Me: "OK. How about if you just go through everything, take out what you don't wear anymore and throw everything back in piles?"

The Boy: "OK. Works for me."

Compromise, my friends. Compromise. Works with kids too.

What should I make of this picture the boy just sent me over IM? Is there trouble in store for the high school years?

Help.

So said Peaches on the topic of "The Boy"
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

The people at the mall were fleeing from the nerve gas, and all of a sudden:

Scytheboy: "Hmmpph."

Me: "What?"

Scytheboy: "All the hot girls are gettin' killed."

Alert - alert - childhood has left the building.

Tommy would be proud....

Buy as many salad dressings as it takes (or make as many as you have to) in order to find one that he likes. Scytheboy will eat any type of green we put his new favorite dressing on...and he eats the whole salad first before he touches anything else.

In case you're wondering...his new favorite is Newman's Own Light Italian.

Trust me...it works.

As Tommy and I have pretty much recovered from our illnesses, we agreed to let the boy have a friend sleep over as they are off for MLK Day tomorrow.

Anyway...it's been kind of interesting to observe what they're doing with their time tonight. In between watching 24 (which started late and threw the whole evening off by the way - damn NFL playoffs) and moving to another T.V. to watch my TiVo'd Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy I occasionally at least made an effort to check on things upstairs and make sure they weren't killing each other or driving Tommy crazy.

So anyway....they began the night playing electric guitars - loudly - two guitars on two amps. All the men in the house were happy.

Then they moved on to playing XBox Live for a couple hours before and after dinner. I could see they were driving Tommy crazy as he kept refilling his glass at the bar....so I suggested a break from XBox for a while.

They played pool after that. That didn't last very long since one of them wasn't having a very good night (I wont' say who).

In turn, they proceeded to play poker - Texas Hold 'em with bits of Hershey bars for chips. This lasted about 40 minutes.

Then more XBox Live.

Then they caught up on episodes of Family Guy and The Simpsons via recorded episodes on Scytheboy's computer media center technology.

A few minutes ago, I checked on them once more. They were in Scytheboy's room. There were army men laid out in strategic positions (green vs. gray) on top of the freshly made bed. They were using a Nerf gun to take out each other's men...apparently the rules are each sniper gets five shots.

I guess it goes to show you...no matter how much technology or fancy things like pool tables and foosball tables you have....they always fall back on the old standards...army men and Nerf guns.

I didn't even know he still had his army men........................